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Welcome to AAK ACADEMY™
One particularly important aspect of our co-development
approach is to run courses at our Customer Innovation
Centers through AAK ACADEMY™. Not only does
this enable us to deliver a more complete service to
customers, but it also provides the perfect platform
to share knowledge on the importance and value of
sustainable solutions.
Martin Persson, Commercial Product Manager, Dairy,
gives us some insights into what AAK ACADEMY™ is,
and the value it provides:
What is AAK ACADEMY™?
AAK ACADEMY™ organizes application-focused
courses based on customer needs and challenges.
Usually held at our premises, but sometimes at a
customer’s own facility, these courses take a holistic
approach that cover many different areas, such as
consumer trends, concept ideation, and product
development.
How does it work?
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segments or markets, but typically they have a formal
set-up with a mixture of attendees from different
companies. We focus on helping people to understand
market trends and improve their product development in
key areas, including healthiness, sustainability, function-
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personnel from different functions, such as Research
& Development, Quality Assurance, production, and
marketing.
What do customers get out of it?
Each AAK ACADEMY™ course are an excellent opportunity
for people to get a deeper understanding of how
AAK oils and fats can support our customers’ current
and future business plans and product roadmaps.
Through our AAK Co-Development Innovation days,
we also facilitate the ideation of possible sweet spots
and solutions by presenting new concepts and market
trends as inspiration. We evaluate customers’ products
and their value chain for improvements, which helps
them prioritize the development of new ideas.
How does this support our ambition to be a “strong and
knowledgeable sustainability partner”?
Within AAK ACADEMY™, sustainability has gone from
being a single agenda point to something that is incorporated
into other topics. Sustainability is a complement
as well as a strong factor for making business decisions
and developing new product concepts and we continuously
develop knowledge and expertise by working
closely with leading businesses worldwide. We strive
to use and share knowledge around sustainable raw
materials, operations and practices. Sustainability is at
our core and that is being recognized by our customers.
What did you achieve over 2019, and what’s next?
In our latest AAK Ice Cream ACADEMY™, we introduced
new ways to explore the connection between product
development and consumer demand for sustainable
alternatives. With the current speed of change in the
market, we believe this strong link is critical to help our
customers be even more successful in their upcoming
product launches.
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in the planning phase, which will continue to highlight
the importance of sustainability and how we are the
right partner to help customers integrate this into their
development processes.